A registered sex offender from Pennsauken who lied to get a job with the Census bureau was sentenced Friday to three years in prison.

In November, Frank Kuni, 49, pleaded guilty to making false statements, concealing material facts from the federal government and to the fraudulent use of an identification document.

On Friday he appeared before U.S. District Judge Noel L. Hillman in Camden for sentencing.

Authorities said that in March 2009 Kuni used the alias "Jamie R. Shepard" and a false birth date on a job application. He also submitted the false information to Homeland Security that verifies an applicant's eligibility.

Kuni used a Burlington County College identification with his photo and alias, authorities said.

After securing the job, Kuni reported for training in the spring, continuing to use his alias. He also asserted that he had never been convicted of a crime, or was in prison, on probation, or on parole in the previous 10 years, authorities said.

At the time of his plea, Kuni admitted he created the alias to avoid reporting his convictions, which include burglary.

According to New Jersey's registry of sexual offenders, Kuni was found guilty in 1996 of endangering the welfare of a child.

It reports that he assaulted one victim and had inappropriate contact with at least two others. The registry also shows that Kuni has used a long list of aliases and at least three different birth dates. Some of the bogus names, including Phanton Flam and Toot Flynn, were spelled in different ways.

Kuni completed a four-day training program. Then before authorities detected he was using an alias through a fingerprint screen, Kuni visited several Pennsauken homes in early May as a Census worker. A woman recognized him from the state's sex offender Internet registry and called police.

Pennsauken authorities arrested Kuni on May 5, the same day the Census Bureau fired him.

On Friday, in addition to three years in prison, the judge ordered three years of supervised release and $875 in restitution.

The Allegheny County District Attorney has closed an inquiry into allegations of child sex abuse by priests who served under former Philadelphia Cardinal Anthony J. Bevilacqua when he led the Diocese of Pittsburgh in the 1980s.

District Attorney Stephen A. Zappala Jr. reviewed the cases and "determined that none of the allegations merited criminal prosecution," his spokesman, Mike Manko, said Friday.

The decision dims one spotlight on the retired church leader as another is flaring across the state.

Zappala launched his probe in March, after Philadelphia prosecutors arrested four current and former priests on sex abuse and related charges and a grand jury report faulted Bevilacqua and church officials for failing to remove abusive priests and help their victims.

Bevilacqua served as the leader of the Pittsburgh diocese from 1983 to 1988, when he came to Philadelphia. As the clergy sex abuse scandal was roiling the church nationally in 2002, his successor, Bishop Donald Wuerl, asked Allegheny prosecutors to review eight allegations of child sex abuse by Pittsburgh-area priests during Bevilacqua's tenure.

At the time, Zappala's office interviewed victims and determined there was no crime to prosecute. The new review reached the same conclusion, Manko said.

Bevilacqua, 88, has never been charged in connection with any abuse allegations and has been out of the limelight since retiring in 2003.

But he remains a central figure in the Philadelphia case. Prosecutors want him to sit for a videotaped deposition that could be used at the priests' trial next March.

The defendants include one of Bevilacqua's top aides, Mgsr. William J. Lynn, who as secretary of clergy for 12 years recommended assignments for priests throughout the archdiocese. Prosecutors have charged Lynn with endangerment for allegedly protecting abusive priests or knowingly placing them in posts that gave them access to children.

In its report, the grand jurors said they also wanted to hold Bevilacqua accountable. "The Grand Jurors have no doubt that his knowing and deliberate actions during his tenure as Archbishop also endangered thousands of children in the Philadelphia Archdiocese," they wrote.

But Bevilacqua's lawyers have maintained that the cardinal is too sick to testify. They say he suffers from cancer, dementia, anxiety and depression, and requires round-the-clock care.

William Sasso, Bevilacqua's longtime lawyer, described for the grand jury a visit in which he said the cardinal struggled to recognize him.

"He was unable to focus on his current thoughts," Sasso said, according to a transcript of his testimony. "At times he was drifting off."

Common Pleas Court Judge M. Teresa Sarmina wants to see for herself. She has ordered the archdiocese to turn over two years of his medical records, and bring the cardinal to her courtroom next month so she can decide if he is competent.

Saturday, September 3, 2011

CAMDEN, N.J. (AP) — A sex offender who managed to get a job with the U.S. Census Bureau until an astute New Jersey mom recognized him from an online offender registry was sentenced Friday to three years in prison.

The 36-month sentence for Frank Kuni was one month short of the top of federal guidelines. He's served nearly half that time already.

U.S. District Judge Noel Hillman said he gave him a harsh penalty, but not because there was some chance the 49-year-old Pennsauken resident would have used his position somehow to commit another sex offense.

The issue, the judge said during a sentencing hearing that turned out to have more legal complications that expected, was that Kuni, using a false name, went to work for the Census Bureau. The agency is one of the few arms of the federal government that compels personal information from every American.

Kuni's action, Hillman said, violated "what I would characterize as a social compact between the government and the governed."

Kuni had a long criminal history. Prosecutors said he'd been convicted of at least 16 different crimes over the last three decades, including cocaine trafficking and burglary. He was convicted in 1996 of sexually assaulting one girl and having inappropriate contact with another.

And he shifted his identity often. Hillman said he used at least 19 different aliases over the years.

Despite that, he managed to get a job going door-to-door for the Census in 2000.

It didn't work so well when he did it again in May 2010.

He got the job under the name Jamie Shepard. A few days into it, a woman in his community, at home with her toddler, recognized him as Kuni, partly because of his long and amusing list of aliases, which included the names "Phanton Flam" and "Toot Flynn."

Census officials say they were on his trail about the same time because they realized his fingerprints suggested he was not Jamie Shepard.

He pleaded guilty in November to charges of making false statements, fraudulent use of a Social Security number and fraudulent use of an identification document.

His sentencing hearing dragged on for nearly three hours as lawyers debated issues such as whether he should be subject to greater punishment for tampering with his old Burlington County College identification. There was a momentary delay when the power in the courthouse went out just as Hillman was to give the sentence.

Kuni's public defender, Lori Koch, argued that there was a simple reason Kuni lied on his employment application: "It's difficult for a man with a sex offense conviction to find a job," she said.

He has complied with all the requirements of sex offenders since he was convicted, she said, and was not trying to misuse the job. When authorities went through the hard drives of the several computers they found in his home, she said, they didn't find child porn or records of trying to contact young people.

The worst they found, she said, was thousands of illegally downloaded sitcoms and movies from the 1970s, 80s and 90s.

That, Koch explained, was evidence of his obsessive-compulsive disorder.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Jason Richardson said something else more ominous was found in his home: A list of girls' names and addressed gathered when he worked on the 2000 census. There was no evidence he contacted any of them.

When Kuni was allowed to speak, he did so for less than a minute — and used part of the time to rebut his own lawyer's comment that he does not live the right way.

"I disagree with her saying I live wrong," he said. "I think everybody else lives wrong that they spend so much money. ... I can live on $6,000 a year."

He didn't show a reaction when he was sentenced.

He could be back in court again.

Lawyers mentioned that the government is considering more charges against him because of the illegally downloaded entertainment.

A registered sex offender from Pennsauken who lied to get a job with the U.S. Census Bureau was sentenced Friday to three years in prison.

In November, Frank Kuni, 49, pleaded guilty to making false statements, concealing material facts from the federal government, and fraudulent use of an identification document.

On Friday, he appeared before U.S. District Judge Noel L. Hillman in Camden for sentencing.

Authorities said that in March 2009, Kuni used the alias "Jamie R. Shepard" and a false birth date on a job application. He also submitted the false information to the Department of Homeland Security, which verifies an applicant's eligibility.

Kuni used a Burlington County College identification with his photo and alias, authorities said.

The Associated Press, citing both the prosecution and defense Friday, said Kuni had also worked for the Census Bureau in 2000, eluding detection.

After securing the census job again last year, Kuni reported for training in the spring, continuing to use his alias. He also asserted that he had never been convicted of a crime or had been in prison, on probation, or on parole in the previous 10 years, authorities said.

At the time of his plea, Kuni admitted he created the alias to avoid reporting his convictions, which include burglary.

According to New Jersey's registry of sexual offenders, Kuni was found guilty in 1996 of endangering the welfare of a child. It says he assaulted one victim and had inappropriate contact with at least two others.

The registry also shows that Kuni has used a long list of aliases and at least three different birth dates. Some of the bogus names, including Phanton Flam and Toot Flynn, were spelled in different ways.

Kuni completed a four-day training program. Before authorities detected that he was using an alias, through a fingerprint screen, Kuni visited several Pennsauken homes in early May as a census worker. A woman recognized him from the state's sex-offender Internet registry and called police.

Pennsauken authorities arrested Kuni on May 5, the day the Census Bureau fired him.

The time he has been in custody since his arrest will count toward his three-year sentence. On Friday, the judge also ordered three years of supervised release and ordered Kuni to pay $875 in restitution.

First published Aug 11 2011 06:30PMUpdated 1 hour ago Updated Aug 13, 2011 09:01PM A 69-year-old registered sex offender will spend up to 15 years in prison for fondling two young girls he had taken shopping and to dinner last year.

Frank Montoya Sr. pleaded guilty this week in 3rd District Court to two counts of sex abuse of a child, a second-degree felony. Judge Robert Faust sentenced Montoya to concurrent terms of 1 to 15 years in prison.

In December, a Fashion Place Mall employee reported seeing Montoya stumbling to a car, according to charges. Murray police stopped Montoya as he was backing out of a parking stall and found two girls, ages 11 and 12, in the back seat.

According to charges, the girls told police that Montoya had fondled them during dinner and as they tried on clothes while shopping that day.

Montoya, who pleaded guilty to felony sex abuse in 2003, told police last year that he has "lusts and sexual urges" he had been suppressing and said he was "no longer going to hold back from doing things that make him happy," court documents state.